


Everything's fine

by Derpinaz



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-23
Updated: 2020-09-04
Packaged: 2021-03-06 23:41:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,735
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26057395
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Derpinaz/pseuds/Derpinaz
Summary: Post S2 tunnel battle. Steve returns to the Byers' house to find Billy sitting at the porch.
Relationships: Billy Hargrove & Steve Harrington, Billy Hargrove/Steve Harrington
Comments: 9
Kudos: 59





	1. Chapter 1

After the tunnel burns up Steve drives the kids back to the Byers house. He’s still high from the adrenaline but slowly coming down as his face starts to hurt more and more. Steve remembers how angry and gone Billy seemed after he hit him, didn’t think a simple “Get out” would set him off that way.

They don’t know what they’ll find, if Billy will still be there, drugged or waiting to fight again, maybe Hopper came back earlier and found him.  _ How are they going to explain what happened? _ Something so removed and unrelated from the Upside Down, as normal as a guy beating the shit out of Steve, something that happens once a year apparently.

Part of him wants Billy gone so they can deal with the aftermath of the battle, but really he just wants all this shit over and wake up a month later driving Dustin to the Snow Ball. He is not expecting to see Billy out on the porch though, smoking, with his knees drawn up and almost curled up in a ball.

His head rises as the headlights hit his face, but he doesn’t seem to register it. Steve knows he should be wary of Billy and his reactions, the fading adrenaline should gear him up for another confrontation but the protective side of him wants to rush out, tell him to grab Max and leave, as if the asshole would actually listen to him.

Steve looks at the kids in the back seat, all quiet and focusing on Billy. “Stay in the car”, Steve says as he opens the door. Walking up to the house he really starts to see Billy, he looks exhausted, almost in shock. Steve doesn’t think he’ll hit him but he’s not taking any chances.

“Billy”, he says with his hands up, trying to look not menacing as possible. “Billy, are you okay?”, Billy looks up at Steve, face blank.

“Harrington? I thought I killed you”, Billy says as if thinking you killing someone would be as regular as killing a fly. “Then what are you still doing here?”, Steve replies. Billy sighs, “the car was gone, Max was gone, I was just waiting..”, Billy sounds defeated as if he gave up when he thought Steve was dead, like he might as well be dead too.

“We just needed to take care of something, everything's fine”, Billy looks down as Steve utters the last words.  _ Everything is not fine _ , he took too long to find Max, doesn’t know how long he was passed out, when he woke up alone he thought Harrington might have been dead and that was just the last thing he needed for Neil to actually kill him, getting rid of him once and for all.

Now that Steve’s not dead, his car is fine and Max is inside, he has to face Neil and that makes the shock leave his body, the anger and fear coming back to his head. He gets up, looks at Steve and spits out, “No thanks to you, now give me the keys”.

“That’s it? You’re just gonna leave?” Steve says surprising himself, he wanted Billy gone after all. Billy steps up to him, “Do you want me to apologize? After you stole my car, left me thinking that I..” He pushes on Steve’s space, trying to make him comply, he needs to go back home with Max as soon as possible, “Just gimme the keys, I won’t bother you again”, hoping that promise will make Steve want to get rid of him too.

That is the last thing Steve expects to hear from Billy,  _ leaving him alone, not bothering him again? _ , maybe they crawled out of the other side of the Upside Down to a universe where Billy is a human being,  _ and a little bit afraid, he notes _ , it’s weird and so unlike Billy Hargrove that it bothers him.

“Fine, let me get the kids out”, Steve says, leaving Billy to follow him. Right now Hopper and Joyce are probably on their way and Billy being there would not go well. He can deal with Billy after. Hargrove is not part of the Upside Down problems, just his everyday life ones.

He can hear the kids yelling and trying to get out, all looking past Steve’s shoulder down to where Billy is. When he opens the door Dustin is the one to speak, “Steve, what..” Steve cuts him off, “Not now, go inside the house, wait for me there”.

Billy hangs to the side, he will not deal with the little shits more than he needs to but sees Max getting out with the rest of them, “Max, stay inside”. Max glares at him, as if almost hitting him in the balls with a spiked bat changes anything. Billy sees Steve about to speak up and says, “Neil is waiting for us”. She slowly crawls back and closes the door, she knows what that means, is not like she will be the one punished but somehow still cares enough not to have him killed. 

Steve watches the exchange and notices the way Max changed at the mention of Neil. Why did Billy have to be an asshole if it was actually his father that wanted them home? Why was he so angry to almost kill a man to get to Max?. “Harrington, the keys”, Steve moves to the trunk to get all the gear, throws it on the ground and tosses the keys back to Billy.

Billy gets in the car and doesn’t even threaten Steve about the trunk or the car, he just drives off, not looking at him, it leaves a sour taste in Steve’s mouth, he thought Billy was just out to get him for fun, now he’s not so sure. He stays outside until Billy’s tail lights disappear and the headlights of Hopper’s truck replace them. He puts Billy on the back of his mind and walks back to the house.


	2. Chapter 2

The next time Steve sees Billy is at school, his face somehow matching the damage done to Steve that night. He’s back to being regular Billy, except the attention is no longer directed at him. Steve starts watching him from afar, alone in the hallways and notices how his shoulders drop and his face grimaces when no one is looking. 

A few days later, Billy is waiting for Max when he comes out of school, his face back to normal and his eyes on Steve but still keeping his promise. Max skips ahead to let Billy know she’ll leave with Steve, Mike and Dustin to the Wheeler’s house. “I’ll take her”, Billy says as he grabs Max by her backpack and Steve doesn’t have time to reply as Billy enters the car and leaves.

At the Wheeler’s, Billy is waiting outside his car and stumps his newly lit cigarette on the ground as soon as he sees Steve’s car approach. He glares at Max, who was already walking away and cuts him off with, “I know, I know, 3 hours tops”. He didn’t want to be there nor have to dedicate the rest of the day waiting for Max, but Neil had only allowed him to keep his key as long as he was with her so they had to go back to the house together in time for dinner.

Steve gets out to let Dustin off, Max joins him and Mike and they run to the house, leaving Steve and Billy standing on the curb. Billy sighed, looking for his keys and cigarettes and motioned to get in the car to leave but Steve tried to stop him by asking, “Can I have one?”. Billy did not stop, “Get your own, Harrington”.

“Billy, wait”. Now Billy turns and faces Steve angrily,  _ he promised to leave him alone and he did exactly that, why did Steve not do the same.  _ “What you want, Harrington?”.

Steve didn’t know what he wanted, it just didn’t feel right to be there suddenly alone with Billy and part ways as if they had never met. Billy was still looking at him, waiting for an answer. 

“Was beating me in the face all you needed to stop being an asshole to me?”, Steve found himself surprised at his own reply.

Billy did not expect that, he didn’t mean for that to happen that way, neither the beating nor the aftermath but he couldn’t give him the real reason he was so angry that night. “I defeated King Steve. What else do I need from you?” Billy answered trying to act all smug and dismissing.

“But nobody saw you beating me, only those 12 year old that you don’t care about. You were not there for a challenge, you were just looking for Max and happened to find me”, Steve explained, pushing, while walking towards Billy’s car, maybe if he could get him talking, riled up, Billy would at least not act as if Steve didn’t exist anymore.

“I don’t have time for this”, Billy huffed and turned around, expanding the distance that Steve had shortened. He did not want to deal with this right now. Billy thought Steve would back off, glad to be left alone, but now he realized it just made him curious, _he did not need someone like Harrington snooping into his life._

“Really? Where you gotta be?”, Steve rebutted. 

“None of your business, Harrington.”, Billy says entering the car. Steve placed his hands on the hood of the car, effectively blocking his path. 

Billy kept glaring at him, revving the engine, trying to intimidate him. “Well, since you’re making it your business by being a bitch, I gotta be here to pick up Max in 3 hours and I don’t know if you noticed but Karen’s car is not in the driveway. Why? You wanna join us?”, he answered slyly, hoping to freak Steve out so he could drive to the quarry and get drunk while he waits to come back.

“Yeah, sure”, Steve smiled and ran to the passenger side door closing it loudly.

“What the hell, Harrington?”

“You said to join you, right? Let’s go”, Steve said, calling his bluff.

“Get out”, Billy says pointing a finger at Steve over the console. 

Steve didn't move, he just kept staring Billy down with a smile. “Despite what you might think, I’m not scared of you. This, your  _ act _ ”, Steve says, gesturing to all of Billy, “is all bullshit”. 

Billy grabs the steering wheel and floors the gas.  _ If Harrington wanted to be a little bitch then he was gonna pay for it by walking back to his car all the way from the quarry. _


	3. Chapter 3

“Billy, slow down!”, Steve screamed as Billy floored the gas.

“No way princess, you wanted to join me so relax and enjoy the ride”, Billy replied laughing.

“You’re gonna kill us both!”

“Don’t worry, I’ll stop before the cliff”, Billy said while looking at Steve’s horrified eyes. “Maybe”.

For Billy there were worse ways to spend the rest of the day than provoking Steve, the guy had asked for it when he confronted him. This was a Steve that had seen him while he was under Neil’s control, a Steve that was no longer reacting to Billy’s actions but asking questions that Billy didn’t have an answer for, a Steve that despite everything, did not want to be left alone,  _ so he was gonna to show him what that is like. _

Steve gave up somewhere between the town and the woods, but he kept watching Billy, who had that determined look. Steve was not scared but at the same time he wasn’t sure what was going through Billy’s head.

Billy accelerated when they reached the quarry, loving that adrenaline rush making his hands on the steering wheel tingle. This type of adrenaline made him feel alive, he was not angry or anxious, he felt free, in control. 

Steve didn’t feel the same though and he was screaming at Billy on the top of his lungs as they came near the cliff. Billy looked Steve in the eyes, turned the wheels and hit the breaks, leaving them just a few feet from the edge.

“Whoo! See that?”, Billy screamed all excitedly.

Steve got out of the car and doubled over breathing heavy as Billy slammed the door and looked over at the view.

“What was that, Billy?” Steve demanded running over to Billy ready to fight if he had to.

“Relax! It was just a bit of fun”.

“Fun? How was I supposed to know you were gonna stop? If it hadn’t been for Max you probably would have killed me at the Byers’. You actually thought you did it”.

“That was different.”

“How so?”

“Just was”, Billy answered, turning around and lighting a cigarette, walking to the nearby rocks. Steve had to go and ruin the moment by bringing up that night, he had Neil breathing down his neck, he was not in control, the pressure made him overreact.

Billy went quiet and climbed a few rocks to sit at the top. “Ok”, Steve replied softly, he noticed the change in Billy’s mood. Steve knew what to do when Billy overreacted, just gear up and fight back, but he didn’t know how to deal with this new distant, silent Billy, all tense as if restraining himself from either screaming or crying, Steve didn’t know which.

Billy did remember promising to Steve he would leave him alone, he just needed to get out of there and thought that was the least he could do after the unintentional beating. He didn’t know how to apologize and is not like he would either, given how he had found him.

“Why do you hang out with a bunch of 12 year olds? That is even creepier than me killing you”, he didn’t really care about the answer it was just another way to turn it back on Steve, but he ended up looking down and listening to Steve ramble on about how he felt like he was their guardian or some shit, moving his hands all quick and jumpy, getting distracted with his own story, going back and forth and it calmed him rather than irritate him. He just closed his eyes and listened, he didn’t have to talk or answer questions he wasn’t ready to.

Steve noticed how Billy just listened to him, even huffing smilingly at times, Billy had calmed down, he was not provoking him and not ignoring him either, so he sat down on an opposite lower rock and counted it as an improvement.

“It sounds to me like you don’t have any friends. Ever since the Wheeler chick dumped you for the weird Byers kid”, Billy casually mentioned looking down as Steve was going on about how Dustin was leaving for the summer.

“You don’t either. I’ve seen you”, Steve says looking up at Billy in surprise. “At school. You only use Tommy for attention but don’t talk to anyone else and always leave alone if not with Max”.

Billy didn’t see it that way, it was just how he dealt with himself, there was no in-between. He either was the over-reactive, angry bully and ladies man brought out by the lack of control, usually when Neil pushed him the worst; or he was just alone, minding his own business looking for the next thing that excited him or distracted him. It seemed that today that was Steve.

After an extended period of silence Billy extended a cigarette to Steve, “You were right”.

Steve looked at him somewhat shocked at the offering. “About what?”, he asked, accepting the olive-branch like cigarette from Billy.

“I was looking for Max, you were just in the way”. Steve made a sound acknowledging his answer, “Why did you not just tell Max that your father was looking for her?”

“Not in the talking mood”. Steve didn’t know if he meant then or now, but he was learning to not push this quiet Billy and decided to back off,  _ they just got to talking, he could get answers later. _

“Is getting dark, we should go back”, Steve says, getting up and extending a hand to help Billy down. For a split second he considered taking it, “I was gonna leave you here, you know?”.

“I knew it was a possibility”, somehow that felt comforting to Billy. 


End file.
